Octavian
Octavian, also known as Hierophant or Emissary, is a 7th Generation (post diablerie) Cappadocian necromancer and member of the Black Hand. Description Visually cursed to a greater degree than the rest of his Clan, Octavian truly is a walking corpse; sunken gray skin, white hair and two holes where his nose once stood allow him little contact with mortals. His seemingly weak build can prove deceptive, though, as anyone who has seen him with a sword in hand will attest to his militant past. Mortal Life Octavian was the thirdborn son of a Genoese nobleman born in 1364 during the aftermath of the plague and the first signs of another war with Venice. Sheltered during childhood, his parents having decided he would become a priest, he spent his days in study and in church, learning a great deal about christian beliefs and practices of the era and also picking up some herbalism on the way. As the war of Chiogga began, Octavian was sent by his parents to Rome, where he was to become an ordained priest, but he, resentful of his parent's worries and inspired by tales of the Crusades, instead enlisted with the local chapterhouse of the Knights Hospitaller. He spent the remainder of his life in holy service on Rhodes, learning medicine from his fellow knights and becoming a respectable swordsman in his own right. He participated in numerous battles against pirates who plagued pilgrims on their way East, and in 1396 embarked to Nicopolis, where he was one of the few survivors of the disaster that was the Last Crusade. Him and a handful of other survivors then travelled to Marseille, but were caught up in a peasant uprising just miles from the city. Octavian was mortally wounded by Hercule in the incident, but subsequently embraced by Eva out of pity. Life after Embrace Like many Cappadocians, Octavian awoke only to find himself buried in a coffin. After clawing and punching his way out, he was greeted by his new brood and given his first meal, which he politely refused and instead drank from a fresh corpse. Since then he has spent most of his time either alone or in study with his sire, to whom he has shown quite an attachment. Recently, he was given a small village just outside the castle proper to care for, and has shown great dedication to his flock. He has also taken to attending local burials and giving the corpse "proper" honors after the attendants have left. In addition, he has found a friend in his brood brother, Hannibal. He challenged Hercule to a private duel and humiliated the Toreador due to his lack of respect for the lady of the castle. Tasked by Eva to prepare for the arrival of an important elder, he and Hercule burned a Roma camp and slew a number of the survivors in an effort to force the notoriously elusive Ravnos into the open. Octavian directed Hercule to journey into the city and bring reenforcements at the next sunset while he spent the day in a cabin near the burned camp. Hercule seized this opportunity and directed Raoul to stake the Cappadocian during the day and thus ruin Eva's plans of impressing the coming elder. He was awoken two nights later by a masked Damien and in a state of confusion and anger staked the young Brujah and left him in the camp. Upon his return to the castle, he hastily journeyed to the city with Eva where the arriving elder Jean-Baptiste and his entourage were already waiting. He escorted them as they awoke the slumbering Prince and later swore a knightly oath to defend Regis and his subjects. Just before departing back to the castle, Arthur confirmed Hercule's betrayal to the Cappadocians. Upon returning to their domain, the Clan of Death were greeted by a pillar of smoke coming from Octavian's village, which had been massacred and burned by the Ravnos, Conquest and Adam, prompting Octavian to frenzy for the first time. After Damien faced the sun and murdered a family in a frenzy, Octavian cut off his hand at Regis' command as a punishment, but also welcomed the young Brujah as the new guardian of the Maison and tended to his wounds. When word reached the Cappadocians that the inquisitor had arrived and kidnapped Titus, they rode to the Abbey where Eli revealed to him that Damien's family had been slain. Deciding not to tell Damien of this tragedy, he directed him to protect Eva at all costs while he and Hannibal would try to ensure the knights' safe escape from the city and the clutches of Kayetan. As Jean-Baptiste and his coterie were escaping, Octavian and Hannibal stopped the inquisitor, whereupon Octavian had his brood brother to cut off his hands so Kayetan would grant him a peaceful audience. During the next night, he was interrogated by the inquisitor and his group and asked seven questioned that determined wether he was a monster or not. His answers were satisfactory, and he promised Kayetan that he would never embrace or impose the blood bond upon anyone, willing or not. His efforts allowed Marseille and the knights peace from the holy hunter, but Titus was nonetheless beheaded just before the inquisitor left, but not before imparting some valuable wisdom to Octavian. In 1413, Adam visited the Cappadocian and told him where Hercule was hiding, upon which Octavian and Damien immediately set out to capture him. They went to Désirée's brothel but found it empty of cainites and decided to wait there until they returned. Désirée returned alone and when Octavian told her what Adam had told him, she became distraught and realized the traitorous Malkavian was with Hercule. Despite his best efforts, Octavian was unable to find the Toreador, which gnawed on him greatly. When Adam finally revealed himself and his activities fully to the Prince, Octavian was adamant in punishing him greatly for Hercule's diablerie but his wished were not granted. He isolated himself further as the years passed and spent time with Kathrine, learning from her the more obscure and forbidden ways of Cappadocian magic. In 1444, after Cappadocious was diablerized, he found his sire turned to ash, which prompted him to a great frenzy in which he attacked Damien, who managed to stake him and take him into the basement, where they found a murdered Kathrine and a dying Hannibal. Through much difficulty, Octavian managed to overcome his frenzy and fed his blood to Hannibal together with Damien in order to save him, but also effectively broke his oath to the inquisitor. Upon realizing what had happened, Regis arranged for Nicodemus to transport Octavian and Hannibal out of the city using a leper caravan. They headed towards Troyes where Nicodemus had a contact, Eudes de Troyes, who could arrange further transport for the duo. The Brujah greeted them and upon hearing their story, provided a meeting with one of the local Cappadocians, Pietro Giovanni. The meeting itself was strained and filled with palpable tension, but concluded peacefully. The next night, tho, as Octavian and Hannibal left the city, they were ambushed by Pietro and his ghoul, Martin. While Hannibal managed to stake Pietro, Martin and Octavian engaged in a long swordfight which the ghoul lost, his eye and face being withered by the Cappadocian's magic. Martin then rose as an athanathos corpse knight and continued his assault until finally being destroyed by the combined efforts of the two Graverobbers, but not before severely wounding Octavian. With the staked Giovanni in tow, the two made haste for the North. Spending the night in the barn of a farmer Hannibal had coerced into helping them, they awoke only to find that an aged Kayetan had tracked them down. The inquisitor proceeded to slay Pietro and took the Cappadocian duo captive, taking them to a fortress near Mainz. Upon arriving, Octavian learned that a Grail Knight, Seinia of Muscovy, was already being held prisoner and interrogated by the inquisition, and Kayetan needed his help to make her reveal the location of the Grail Knights' headquarters. Reluctant to aid in the destruction of the Order of Bitter Ashes, Octavian stalled the interrogation to his best ability while Seinia used the powers of the blood to reach out and call to Jean-Baptiste. The Elder arrived in time along with Eli, and the two provided a distraction that allowed Octavian to escape and join them in an unmaned tower. While Jean-Baptiste scouted the area in anticipation of reinforcements, Eli fed Octavian his blood and used an ability that erased the Cappadocian's memory of the occasion. Kayetan, however, located them and threatened to kill Seinia and Hannibal unless they surendered themselves. Octavian, wounded and tired from torture and the battle with Martin and Pietro, challenged the inquisitor to a duel to determine their fates, but Eli, having sneaked a mole into the inquisitorial mob, commanded his pawn to stab Kayetan in the back. Using the moment of surprise, Seinia managed to free herself while Octavian untied Hannibal and shared last words with Kayetan. Instead of taking the inquisitor's relic sword, he left it for ((Bernard's son)). Having succesfully escaped, Octavian renounced Eli's dirty tactics but upon hearing that the First Squire was a Cappadocian, the Graverobber trio exchanged blood in rememberance of their fallen Clan. When he next awoke, Octavian found himself in a strange daze. Confused, he met Eli, Jean-Baptiste and lady Seinia, but it soon became apparent that the two Grail Knights were not themselves and that Eli was somehow manipulating all of them. The First Squire then revealed his heritage as a member of the Giovanni family and told the gathered cainites that he had already killed Hannibal but was conflicted about destroying Octavian, as he had grown to respect the Cappadocian. In light of these revelation, Jean-Baptiste began to recall some of what had happened and break the Giovanni's spell, forcing Eli to flee while the three regained their bearings and memories. Utterly betrayed and wounded, the group met with Silas and traveled to a Grail Knight castle in Scotland. The Elder Jean-Baptiste, having been manipulated for at least a century, was unable to come to terms with this cruel reality and decided to face the Sun while Octavian became part of Silas' Entourage. Now serving the Order of Bitter Ashes, Octavian was given the Grail Embrace and survived, becoming one of the last handful of the remaining Grail Knights. Together with Silas, he remained largely in Britannia, as the Giovanni had little power in Prince Mithras' domain and he could live without fear of their aggresion. At some point during this time, he acquired the Face of Mathaviel, a golden mask that supposedly held an imprisoned demon that only a man of God could contain. Towards the end of the 15th Century, he travelled to the borders of France and the Holy Roman Empire several times, collecting relics from derelict Order fortresses in the area, and in one such travel he met Emile, a heretic with an uncanny ability to sense the souls of the dead, who he forcibly recruited into the entourage and ghouled. In 1491, during a visit to London with fellow Grail Knight Roland, he observed a mortal dueling competition and became interested in a young man who fought with a staff, an image representing archangel Raphael. After proving his prowess in the competition, the boy, Young John, was invited to join the group of knights and accepted. Later during the same visit, Octavian tracked down Gnydir, one of the many Caitiff embracees that were causing chaos in London at the time and saved him from execution, earning another disciple. By 1492 the situation in the Order was tense as ever, with only five Grail Knights remaining and the Grail itself rapidly running out of power. In a castle in Southern Scotland, Octavian, Silas and Roland hosted Damien, who had arrived together with Azalais, Germaine and the tzimisce Ruben to ask for protection for a powerful tzimisce elder who was arriving to attend the Convention of Thorns. The Knights agreed, with Roland and Octavian accompanying the Elder and his entourage to Thorns but entering the Convention on neutral ground, as representatives of the Order. During the talks, Octavian questioned the Camarilla's treatment of the Giovanni and the decision to obscure knowledge of Caine, but recieved only misleading answers, and the two Knights grew increasingly unsatisfied with the Convention's direction. Immediately after the last meeting, the two left, calling upon all remaining Grail Knights to convene at the castle in Southern Scotland. Four attended the meeting, with Wycliffe torpid at the Order's headquarters. The four shared blood and decided that in the wake of the Convention, their Order was in danger, having become a dangerous relic of the past to the new Cainite order. They vowed to travel separately, each calling upon past allies to aid the Order and reject the Camarilla, and meet again in Aix-en-Provence in a year's time. Octavian's journey proved largely fruitless, having been thrown out of Troyes by it's Queen. In Aix, Emile located the coffin of a deceased Cainite with the symbol of the Order. They then travelled to Marseille, where Prince Regis was happy to see his old ashen priest after half a century, and realized the skeleton they had found was that of Francis, Regis' first Childe. This was a portent of things to come, as the situation in Marseille turned to disaster. <> In the wake of these events, Octavian retreated into torpor for over a week, during which he suffered endless visions of the Archangel Gabriel as well as being engaged in a mental battle with the demon in his mask. When he awoke, he found Silas waiting for him, and his companion demanded that the Cappadocian relinquish his mask, which he reluctantly did. His doubt in the teachings of the via Caeli now replaced with a fervor to serve the angel of death bordering on madness, he rode to the Abbey of Saint Victor where he attemted to explain his divine revelation to Marseille's acting Prince, Basil. The Toreador was naturally concerned with Octavian's seeming blasphemy, but could do nothing as the Cappadocian staked him and removed his own skin, inscribed with teachings from the Gospel of Laodice, and placed it over Basil like a ceremonial shawl. He then covered the Toreador in candle oil and set him on fire, ritualistically severing his own ties to the Road of Raphael. He rode back North with Silas and Rolan the very same night, having learned of their failures in gathering allies and telling them nothing of what he had done to Basil. Still, the blessing of the Grail and the glow of his skin began to fade. The other Knights were visibly concerned with Octavian's fall from grace, and were almost glad when he chose to stay behind in London, where he had been contacted by a resident surviving Cappadocian, Lord Thomas Camden. He spent more than a decade in the Seneschal's tutelage, conversing on historical and philosophical matters as well as advancing his knowledge in necromancy a great deal. This tutorship also coincided with Octavian's complete fall from the Road of Tears, and he began to study a Path Camden himself was actively developing, that of Death and the Soul. The transition proved to be a difficult one, as the initiate struggled to reconcile the grace of God with the dark and violent realities of death, and it became so hard that he was forced to spend alone in the wilderness and on the brink of Wassail, as his Beast ravaged his mind with newfound strength provided by the dissolution of the Grail's blessing. Ultimately, however, guided by visions of the Archangel of Death, Octavian understood, and to cement this new conviction murdered his squire, Young John. This was another symbolic severance from Raphael, as John was recruited for reminding Octavian of Raphael and carrying his symbol, the staff. The following years were spent in further study under Camden, but in 1513(?) he and Emile left London, once again heading South to Marseille, perhaps due to a supernatural summons initiated by Damien. They arrived just as the Superatores were preparing to depart the city after destroying the local Tremere, and Octavian gladly joined their pack, even picking up some priestly duties from Joachim. Having heard rumors of several anarch "sabbats" congregating in Milan, the Superatores headed East, and soon reached the Italian City, and Octavian even located one of his mortal relatives, Donato, and subjected him to the blood bond, perusing the man's estate as his laboratory and haven. Soon enough, they met Flaminio and his pack, who welcomed them to stay and promised a great hunt for an ancient to come in the near future. Sure enough, word arrived from the East some years later, pointing to a library in the Vatican for a clue to the supposed Methuselah's location. The gathered anarchs moved, proquiring the clue and heading to the Adriatic island of Lissa, where the ancient, now revealed to be the Malkavian Methuselah Cybele, supposedly slept. They found her awake but hardly lucid, and Octavian, along with Ser Andrea, murdered most of her mortal retainers while Flaminio diablerized her. With the Lasombra elder now empowered, the packs returned to Milan, where they immediatly fell upon Fray Diego and his retainers, slaying them and handing the reins of power to Giangaelazzo. Shortly after the deed, the new Prince revealed that Joachim had gone missing, most likely destroyed by Adam, who had entered the city while they were gone. Furious at the Malkavian's presence, Octavian offered to hunt him down, much to Damien's chagrin. Flaminio intervened to ensure neutrality, and sent Lencius along with the duo to find and subdue the Malkavian. During their ride, Octavian noticed they were being followed, and waited to meet their pursuer, who introduced himself as Adder, and expressed interest in the Cappadocian, promising to meet him soon before riding forth alone. The trio then quickly located Adam, and even extracted the staked Joachim. The next evening, Damien and Lencius went out to meet Adam again, while Octavian waited with the Assamite. As Joachim awoke, Adder approached them, and, revealing himself to be Joachim's superior, expressed his displeasure with the Shakar's preformance and promptly beheaded him as the Cappadocian merely watched. Ghouls *Francesco, the Horse *Emile of Kanfen, now Embraced * Donato Spinola * Giovanni Marcinno, captain of the Eva Trivia *He cannot feed on living humans and instead ritualistically drains fresh corpses of blood before burial. *He is Eva's youngest Childe. *He walked the Road of Tears but fell from it, instead taking to the Path of Death and the Soul. *He picked up the secret of supernatural strength through half a century of sparring with Damien. *During their joint service as Grail Knights, Silas taught Octavian the art of fleshcrafting. Category:Cappadocian Category:Dark Ages Category:Grail Knight Category:Sabbat Category:Pack Priest Category:Diablerist Category:Black Hand Category:Watch Commander Category:Ductus Category:London Category:Dominion